Kaden Martirano: The strong-armed QB from ‘little, old Salem, Oregon’ is poised for a big-time season

The Titans leader and 4.0 student has plenty of motivation after his first season as a starter was cut short by injury

Kaden Martirano is ready to go. 

That might be an understatement — a big, big, big understatement.

Martirano, entering his junior season with the West Salem football team, is bigger.

He’s faster.

He’s stronger.

He’s more prepared. He’s worked hard.

He’s motivated — wow, is he ever motivated.

And, maybe most of all, he wants to make up for lost time.

Martirano, after having his promising sophomore season cut short because of injury, gets a smile when he talks about his upcoming junior campaign, his second as the Titans’ starting quarterback. 

“Oh yeah, I’m looking forward to the season,” Martirano said as he stood behind the end zone of the sun-soaked turf at West Salem High School the day before practices were officially set to start. “I’m 6-2½ and about 200 pounds now. I’m about 15 pounds heavier and two inches taller than last year. That’s going to help in every aspect of my game, knowing I can contribute in the run game, and also just putting the ball in the right spot, having a little more velocity on the ball.”

Martirano loves to talk about playing quarterback. He loves to talk about the West Salem team and the strong tradition the Titans boast. He loves to talk about his family, and he takes a lot of pride in achieving not only on the gridiron, but also in the classroom.

Entering the 2023 season, Martirano also has something else going for him — an added appreciation for the game of football. He picked that up the hard way, having his sophomore season end in Week 4, when he suffered a broken right wrist during a game at Grants Pass.

“It was that way 100 percent, knowing that it could have been my senior year, and I could have been out the rest of the year, not knowing what my future was going to be like — that could be big,” Martirano said. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t tough. Every day was a grind for me. I think it was tough for the entire team. But, bringing my love and passion for the game, I think I helped my teammates out in a different way.”

With the injury behind him, the upcoming season seems to hold unlimited promise for the bigger, faster, stronger Martirano.

He could open plenty of eyes this season — and there’s at least one person who thinks that’s exactly what Martirano is going to do.

“He’s one of the best QBs in the class of 2025,” said Tualatin standout senior receiver Kenen Elder, who trained with and caught plenty of passes from Martirano this summer. “Last year, he had an injury. But, man, if he had a sophomore season, everyone would know how good he is. He’s a super good QB. He’s got size, he’s got some of the best accuracy I’ve seen. I feel like he could be one of the next great QBs in Oregon, along with (Tualatin junior) Nolan Keeney. They both have a lot to show this year.”

That’s just what Martirano wants to do — while not taking anything for granted.

“I’m just going to take it game by game, week by week,” he said. 

Growing up in Salem

You can hear the pride in Martirano’s voice when he talks about Salem, a place he’s lived almost his entire life.

“I was actually born in Silverton,” he said. “My parents then moved to Salem. We lived in northeast Salem for a bit, by my grandpa. That was until I was three or four, then we moved to west Salem.”

While Martirano had an active early childhood, it wasn’t team sports he was active in, at least not at first.

“When I was little, my dad and I would always go to the dunes to ride quads (all-terrain vehicle with four wheels),” he said. “As I got older, my dad wanted me to get into sports, instead of just riding on the weekends, because I could get to college that way. So, I started playing basketball, football and baseball — and baseball was my first love.”

He got started on the diamond early.

“I started playing T-ball,” he said. “I played for the Tampa Bay Rays. I played baseball up until my freshman year.”

While Martirano spent plenty of time during his youth playing baseball, football slowly started taking over for him.

“I started football in my fifth-grade year,” he said. “So, it wasn’t my first love, but I started going with that. I played quarterback. I also played a lot of defense. Defense was actually my first love in football, but I was pretty good at throwing the ball, too. I played at D-end.”

While learning and improving on the football field was big, Martirano also is quick to point out that his parents, Anthony and Elisa Martirano, played a crucial part in his development — not only as an athlete, but as a person.

“I just want to give a shout-out to my parents for all the sacrifices they made,” Martirano said.

He also talks with sibling pride about his younger sister, Karlee, who will be a West Salem freshman this school year.

“She’s into hoops,” Kaden said of Karlee, a basketball standout. “She’ll be a freshman here in the fall. It’s going to be different. With our gap, we haven’t had school together for a bit, since COVID. But it’s going to be fun. I can’t wait to watch her play and ball-out this season.” 

Sophomore starter

Martirano sets his goals high.

Entering his sophomore season at West Salem, he had his sights squarely set on earning the starting quarterback spot.

“Yeah, starting as a sophomore, it was a goal,” he said. “Knowing that when I was a freshman I’d be backing up Brooks Ferguson, who now is at Portland State, it was a goal that I’ve dreamed about my whole life. Yeah, I wanted to be a starter under Coach (Shawn) Stanley. It was always a goal.”

It turned out to be a goal achieved, as Martirano earned the starting quarterback spot for the Titans for the 2022 campaign. As familiar with the West Salem background that he is, Martirano knew the significance of that achievement. 

“Knowing West Salem, knowing the history, there aren’t a lot of sophomores that start, especially at quarterback,” he said. “The last ones I remember are Brett Smith (in 2008) and Cade Smith (in 2012). So, it’s a blessing to be a starting quarterbacks for West.”

Martirano’s first start was certainly a challenging task. In the 2022 season opener, the young West Salem squad played at traditional power Sherwood in a nonleague game.

“Definitely, there were a lot of nerves,” Martirano said. “I was pretty nervous leading up to that game. But, actually, I really wanted to play that game, especially after my freshman year (when he was the only freshman on the West Salem varsity roster), when we lost to Sherwood (35-27) in Round 2 (of the Class 6A state playoffs). I really wanted to get back at them. It didn’t turn out the way we wanted, but I was waiting for that game. I really wanted it.”

Even before he took his first snap, Martirano picked up an unexpected honor, as he served as one of four team captains for the Titans, along with then-junior lineman Derek Brager, senior Jimmy Lathen and senior Wyatt Jenks.

“I wasn’t really thinking about that, knowing that we have some older vets on the team that probably deserved it more, but knowing that Coach Stanley believes in me and really puts his faith and trust in me, knowing I could be one of the captains really was a blessing,” Martirano said. “I was really excited about that.”

In his first start, Martirano, who was one of 11 new starters on offense for the Titans, completed 16 of 26 passes for 243 yards. He had a 68-yard touchdown pass to senior receiver Braiden Copeland in the first quarter. Copeland was Martirano’s favorite target in the contest, with three catches for 95 yards, all in the first half, before he left the game with a knee injury.

Sherwood pulled away in the second half to notch a 31-14 victory.

“You always want to win, you always want to be a competitor, but showing what we showed as a first-year offense, with a first-year starting quarterback, it couldn’t have gone much better than that,” Martirano said of that first game. 

A bad break

While Martirano will always remember that first start, he’ll likely also remember his fourth start — but for an entirely different, and unfortunate, reason.

It was in that contest, a Special District 1 (Central/Southwest Valley Conference) game at Grants Pass, that Martirano’s season came to an unexpected end.

The Titans, who fell to Lake Oswego and North Medford after the season opener at Sherwood, got off to a strong start at Grants Pass as the young squad was looking to record its first win of the season.

Then disaster struck.

“Up until that point, we were winning the game. It was probably one of my best games ever, especially at the varsity level. Coming out of the half — I remember it like it was yesterday — Coach Stanley telling the linemen, ‘We’ve got to block for our quarterback. We have to give him a little more time,’” Martirano said. “That wasn’t the case, but I don’t hold any blame on anyone. Life goes on no matter what. Called the play, we didn’t come off the double-team, I got rid of the ball and their guy (a Grants Pass pass rusher) kind of lit me up. I kind of braced myself, and that’s when it happened.”

What happened was his right (throwing) wrist broke.

“When he hit me, I braced myself with my hands, and that force kind of broke it,” Martirano said. “At first, I knew something was wrong with it. But I didn’t think it was broken, by any means. I went to the trainer, and the trainer said, ‘It could be broken.’ But the first words I said were, ‘Tape me up, I can still hand the ball off.’”

That didn’t happen.

“My mom came in, and she kind of shut everything down,” Martirano said. “She said, ‘No.’”

Not only was Martirano’s game over, but so was his sophomore season.

“It wasn’t the year I was planning on having, especially after putting in all that work,” he said. “You dream of having that season where you can show who you are, as a player and as a person.” 

While it wasn’t the season Martirano was hoping to have (he finished with 771 passing yards and four touchdowns with two interceptions in three-plus games), it wasn’t a wasted season — he made sure of that.

“You always say, ‘Being in the game is the best way to see it,’ but also, you can be outside the game and see it in different ways,” Martirano said. “I think that really helped me look at the game a little differently and look back and see what I could do better.”

While he was seeing the game from a different view, Martirano also was ready to start rehabbing his broken wrist.

“I was in a cast for about two months. Once I got out, I had PT (physical therapy). I got out of my cast about a week before my first start on varsity basketball. It was a quick turnaround. It was a little hard at some points, knowing I was weak. But that rehabilitation time gave me a chance to get bigger, faster, stronger, and also tweak and fine-tune my mechanics,” Martirano said. “It also gave me a chance to rest my arm, which I never really did before, because I’m always working hard to get better. I worked on my mechanics every day.”

Martirano ended up earning a starting spot on the West Salem varsity boys basketball team, helping the Titans win the Central Valley Conference title and finish 17-9.

“Last year, I started my first varsity game,” he said of the basketball season. “I thought I contributed pretty well to the team.” 

Busy summer

After the season-ending injury he suffered during his sophomore year, Martirano wasn’t about to take anything for granted.

“I was still nervous and scared of what the future had in store for me (following the injury), but I still knew in the back of my mind that I had two more years of eligibility left,” he said.

With that in mind, Martirano has had a busy summer with training, camps and colleges.

“I actually got out of school a week early — I got my finals all done, so I could go to Notre Dame (in South Bend, Ind.) for a camp. I can’t describe how great it was there. It was really beautiful,” Martirano said. “Coach Gino (Guidugli), the quarterbacks coach, said he really loved what he saw.” 

He’s been to plenty of other camps — and put in plenty of hard work. 

“I’ve been training with my dad and my quarterback coach, Joe Mohr. I’ve also done Oregon State, Oregon, Eastern Washington, Washington and a mega camp at NW Best out of Portland,” Martirano said. “I went to Saturday Night Live down at Oregon (July 29 at Autzen Stadium in Eugene). That was fun. Knowing that, since I did it last year, I knew what I was going to do, but knowing that I was bigger, faster, stronger, and the coaches wanted to see that, that was a big accomplishment.”

He’s also worked with some top-notch receivers, including Elder, during the summer. And the Tualatin standout sees big things ahead for the West Salem quarterback.

“That’s my guy. I love him to death,” Elder said. “I feel that him not having a full sophomore season may have set him back a step. He took that really hard. He put a lot of work in this year with Mohr Performance. I came and trained with them on the 7-on-7 circuit. He’s a really good QB, and I feel like he’s going to shock a lot of people. Not a lot of people know how good he is, but once they see this season, they’ll know he’s a Power Five guy.” 

Excelling in the classroom

As much hard work that Martirano puts in to be the best football player he can be, he also holds himself to the same high standard in the classroom.

He finished his sophomore year at West Salem with a 4.0 grade-point average, putting him No. 1 for his class. 

“You can’t get any better than a 4.0,” Martirano proudly said. “Knowing where my parents grew up, and the sacrifices they had to go through, it’s big. Knowing the sacrifices they went through to put me in a great school, to get a great education, it makes me strive for that 4.0. My parents always sit down with me and my sister and tell us that you can’t get to the highest level without the grades. They want us to be the best versions of ourselves and be the best academic people we can be.”

But shining in both athletics and in the classroom doesn’t come without a lot of hard work, a lot of long days and strict time management.

“It’s a job,” Martirano said. “After the rehabilitation, after basketball season when I was finally 100 percent, I’d wake up at 4:30 in the morning to go to the gym with my dad. We’d spend about two hours there, lifting and throwing in the gym. Then, go to school. After, I’d work on the track to get faster, or work on the field with my quarterback coach, working on mechanics or working with the receivers, wanting to get better for this year.”

Then there’s all the studying. 

“I tell some people about all of that, and they tell me that I’m lying, or it’s fake, but I can’t make it up,” Martirano said. “It’s a full-time job, and I wouldn’t have it any differently, knowing that I want to be the best version of myself and help my team out in the best way. I love it.”

Set to step up

Martirano is working hard to be the best quarterback he can be, but exactly what kind of quarterback is he? 

“I’m a pro-style quarterback,” he said. “I can stretch the field with my arm, I can dissect the defense with what coverage they’re in, I can put the ball in the right spot. But I can also move with my feet. I wouldn’t say I’m a dual-threat, by any means, but if I have to, I can stretch the field with my legs.”

The bigger, stronger, faster Martirano should also be able to open the field with his powerful right arm.

“I would say I have one of the strongest arms in Oregon,” he said. “I can always put the ball in the right spot. I can manage the offense. I can push the tempo, I can slow it down. I know my guys. I want to keep getting better at everything. That’s always the dream. I’m not a polished quarterback. I haven’t done anything; I haven’t made it anywhere yet. That just goes to show that I’m not complacent. I know where I’m at, and I’m always motivated.”

Motivated not only to be a top quarterback, but also to represent Salem the best he can.

“Knowing that I’ve competed against five-star, four-star quarterbacks that have offers, I always keep a chip on my shoulder, because I’m from little, old Salem, Oregon,” Martirano said. “That’s motivation. Coaches always ask, ‘Where are you from?’ and I say, ‘Salem, Oregon.’ Most of them know where it is, but they also know it’s a small town. Not many people go places. Once in a generation. I’m trying to be that one in a generation. Knowing that Anthony Gould (a receiver and All-American kick returner at Oregon State) came from here, I want to be just like that.”

He sees that same attitude with his West Salem teammates.

“The private schools, like Jesuit and Central Catholic, they have dudes,” he said. “There are guys like (Tualatin’s) Kenen Elder and Jayden Fortier, they’re going to go places. We might not have the four- or five-star guys with all the offers, but we have guys who want to work. We’re going to hit you in the mouth every time, and we’re going to win. We’re physical, and we’re going to outplay you.”

Ready for 2023

West Salem is coming off a 1-8 season and will be fielding a young squad again this year, but Martirano gets a smile and a tone of optimism when he talks about the Titans’ outlook for the upcoming season. 

“We’re looking good,” he said. “We’re a young team. There’s going to be parts of the season that will be tough, but it will be a learning opportunity. Not a lot of kids have a lot of varsity experience. But we were like that last year, and we showed, time and time again, that we can compete; it’s just whether or not we can finish a game. That’s one of our goals this year — to finish.” 

While Martirano is looking to prove what he can do in a full season at quarterback, his emphasis is on the West Salem squad.

“Team comes first,” he said. “Our goal is to win the conference. That’s always our goal. And we want to make it deep in the playoffs. In the past few years, we haven’t made it past the second round (of the state playoffs), so that’s one of my goals.”

Besides starting quarterback, what does Martirano see as his role on the Titans?

“I want to be the best teammate I can be,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I wasn’t last year, but knowing who I was — I was a first-year starter — I was nervous. I had my guys, but it was tough at some points. Now that I have some games under my belt, I can be the leader I know I can be, and I want to be the best teammate I can be.”

He’s also set to put his repaired wrist to the test, preparing to take that first in-game hit.

“I’m ready,” Martirano said. “Knowing that people who have an injury like that, that ended your season, can shy away and be a little timid — I wouldn’t say that I’m ready for it, but when that time comes, they’re not just going to put a hit on me, but I’m going to put a hit back on them. I’m ready for that.” 

Martirano and West Salem will open the 2023 season against a familiar opponent — Sherwood. The Titans will play host to the Bowmen in a nonleague game Sept. 1 at West Salem High School. 

“Three years in a row,” Martirano said. “The past two years wasn’t the best, how we wanted it to happen, but I’m always excited to play. It doesn’t matter who it is, whether it’s Sherwood or South Salem or whoever. I wouldn’t say I don’t care, but I’m just ready to play who steps in front of us.”

The opening game will feature what seems to be two of the most promising quarterbacks in the state in Martirano and Bowmen senior Kasen Covert, who earned first-team all-Pacific Conference honors as a junior in addition to being selected to play in the Les Schwab Bowl. 

“He’s a great kid,” Martirano said of Covert. “I would say he’s really fast, and he’s got a lot of dudes around him. They’re going to be tough, but we know what we can do.”

As for his future beyond the Sept. 1 opener with Sherwood, his junior season and even his senior season, Martirano says he’s not going to worry about that yet.

“I think about it a little bit,” he said. “I talk with my parents about my future, but I really take it day by day, knowing that nothing’s promised. I didn’t know I’d break my wrist in Week 4 at Grants Pass. So, I just take it day by day, week by week.”

Motivated, working hard and taking nothing for granted — yeah, it sounds like Kaden Martirano is ready to go.